Because it was 2016 since our last blog, we terribly missed our friends and followers. So to be able to share our most recent projects, we’ve found an ingenious and cheap way to boost our signal to connect to you more often, straight from the farm!
Since then, with the help of relatives and friends, The Pitak Project has flourished and the following are the highlights:
We’ve built a school and lodging house.
We’ve started transforming the late bamboo forest into a food and timber forest.
And we continue to savor the fruits of our labor. Our diverse food forest from seeds, cuttings, and seedlings are loving us back.
We now have six dogs.
We’ve built a kubo (hut), made of bamboo, nipa, coco lumber, reclaimed wood and old capiz shell and glass windows, with the help of Cha (Cye’s sister who plans to retire with us in the farm) and family friends.
And despite our lean presence in the internet, we’ve widen our network of friends, and had visitors from various non-government organizations, different provinces in the Philippines and from other countries.
Something dear to our hearts, we’ve hosted two batches of students doing their university thesis. The Communication Arts students (Carolina, Arcel and Diane) from Tarlac State University made a video documentary on us. Their documentary was nominated and became one of the eight finalists (student category) on the Catholic Mass Media Awards in 2018. While the Architecture student (Janine) from De La Salle University Dasmariñas made a thesis on natural building. Aside from her paper, she also produced a coffeetable book on the topic. They all passed and graduated.
We now produce naturally-grown powdered turmeric for selling. Aside from that, we are now using our very own natural soaps and shampoo bars, which we also plan to sell in the near future.
And last but not the least, we participated and spoke at the 2nd Philippine Permaculture Convergence organized by the Philippine Permaculture Association. We shared among the participants our stories, struggles and journey in setting up a permaculture community. The gist of what we have shared, “We are all revolutionaries armed with the seeds of permaculture that we will sow in the minds and hearts of the Filipino people.”
But nothing is ever finished—all are continuing projects. Now that the rainy season has come, it is time to plant, tend to the fields for alley cropping, inventory seeds, make bio-organic ferts, repair water catchments, restore this and that, and so on. We’re still alive and kicking. There’s much to celebrate today.#
the pitak project 